eBay

[Gnome]

I recently started using eBay and I'm properly impressed.

However everyone I talk to seems skittish about it. How many people around here use it?

Reason I like it:
- Way cheaper than local stores for many things
- The people ship everything through post wihout invoices (eg. as gifts) so you only pay R30 above and beyond your purchase price
- eBay offers all your money back if you don't receive your order provided you used PayPal to pay (which is the only way to pay for most things anyway).


Examples of what I mean by cheap:
I bought a IBM ServeRAID M1015 Raid Card for R800 (total!). It is pretty much the best RAID adapter available at the moment if you need JBOD and provides 8x SATA-6gb ports. Just try and find a deal like that in SA! (Cheapest I could find it for in SA was R2.5K with WantItAll).

Got a Samsung Google Nexus S for R3300 (total). Brand new and unlocked + an AWESOME cover (soft gel with a image on it) for R30 (would probably charge you R200 here in SA for it).

I haven't even bought that many things but already I have to stop myself from constantly ordering stuff, there are so many deals. Quite scary what people charge locally compared to eBay!

 

[HapticSimian]

Recent purchases include: A wheel speed sensor and ABS control unit for our now-sold BMW - saved about R4k collectively (even having paid customs on the control unit!). A new key fob for our new car. A windscreen mount for my new cellphone - less than half the price of of local generic carp...

eBay rawks.

 

[Gnome]

How many items do you purchase in a year.

This is the only thing that prevents me from buying more: SARS. Apparantly you need to register as an importer if you get > 2 or 3 items or something a YEAR!

 

[HapticSimian]

The what now? Are you Sirius?

I prolly haven't bought more than 15 items total in 18 months or so, but I haven't had any complications with SARS... I have paid customs on most of them though, and the ABS control module was by far the most expensive item at about R6k once SARS had done their [-]arse scratching[/-] calculations.

If there's any truth to what you've said I'm utterly ignorant about it...

 

[Gnome]

I have paid customs on most of them though, and the ABS control module was by far the most expensive item at about R6k once SARS had done their [-]arse scratching[/-] calculations.

Well I pay R30 customs every time. But they send it VIA post and I pick it up @ local post office. Maybe if it is courier'd they always tax. R6K F#$@ what was the actual cost of the item and how did they calculate that!?

If there's any truth to what you've said I'm utterly ignorant about it...

Definitely true, but apparantly they don't keep track of whom imports what. So they rely on shipping companies to report person X/Y for importing more than Z amount of items each year.

You know how SARS operates...

 

[HapticSimian]

Well I pay R30 customs every time. But they send it VIA post and I pick it up @ local post office. Maybe if it is courier'd they always tax. R6K F#$@ what was the actual cost of the item and how did they calculate that!?

Can't recall exact figures, but it was about R1.2k duties and VAT and whatnot on shipped cost of roughly R5.1k. There's spans of .PDFs containing table after table after headache-inducing table on SARS' website...

However, seeing that the local BMW dealers peg it at R10 short of R10k I still came out well ahead.

 

[Rudimental]

- The people ship everything through post wihout invoices (eg. as gifts) so you only pay R30 above and beyond your purchase price

This isn't a 'bonus'. It amounts to tax evasion and is a criminal offence, and you are liable as the wilful recipient of goods in such a situation.

 

[Inn3rs3lf]

I buy so many comics from ebay. I swear its insane. Even with duty and tax, its a hell of a lot cheaper. Signed stuff is insanely cheap. Easily half of what the guys sell it for here.

I have been buying stuff for 3 years now, and only once has something gone missing.....once. Got my money back through ebay and paypal. SARS has not done anything in regards to me being an importer. So I havent come across anything in regards to that.

I love ebay, and ebay loves my wallet. Auctions are the damn worst..............just $5 more......okay, make it $10. lol. Need to get a grip.

I did however buy a ring through them, which was R300 for a tungsten band, which was selling for R2200 here, but the duty and tax on that was R700!!!!!! Still came off better than if bought here, but thats insane for tax on a ring that R300. I also get figurines, and the tax is 14%+10% duty. So thats still a bargain also.

Ebay is safe, and whoever says so, has never used it. I've had more problems from online "stores" here.

 

[Inn3rs3lf]

This isn't a 'bonus'. It amounts to tax evasion and is a criminal offence, and you are liable as the wilful recipient of goods in such a situation.

True dat homedog. Play by the rules.

 

[mh348]

I've also been using eBay for a few years now... Bought a few items, 2 tivo's, stuff for my cellphone, Logitech Harmony remote, 2 notebooks last year and various small items..

I used to also use Bidorbuy alot before, probably bought 100+ items, but got tired of wasting money

 

[Gnome]

2 notebooks last year

Significantly cheaper? Which notebooks?

 

[xrapidx]

This isn't a 'bonus'. It amounts to tax evasion and is a criminal offence, and you are liable as the wilful recipient of goods in such a situation.

If he's paid R30 - its the customs clearance fee, so he's done nothing wrong.

 

[mh348]

Significantly cheaper? Which notebooks?

Yes, cheaper than local suppliers, only thing is no warranty.

First 1 was a Dell XPS 15 i5, came to around 8k (maybe less, can't remember), lolcal price was about 11k at the time..
Second was a Dell Inspiron N5010 i5, around 7.2k

I had both shipped via FedEx, it's a little more expensive but safe than using EMS (post) for high value items.

For the Second 1, the seller wasn't willing to ship to ZA so I used a forwarding company.. Shipito.com

 

[Gnome]

For the Second 1, the seller wasn't willing to ship to ZA so I used a forwarding company.. Shipito.com

Nice, want to use something like that myself for an item I saw. It is the most annoying thing ever that most US based sellers only ship to USA. Everyone else seem to ship everywhere else.

 

[Rudimental]

If he's paid R30 - its the customs clearance fee, so he's done nothing wrong.

He has received goods knowing that they have been (deliberately) labelled such as to allow him to avoid paying the VAT he ought to be.

It is like taking goods through the 'nothing to declare' section of the airport to avoid paying taxes on them. In both cases, not being caught doesn't somehow make it legal.

 

[Mier]

Bought from there a few times. I bought a replacement spare key for my Honda: Local dealer quoted my R3000, bought it with shipping included for R200 on ebay.

Only issue is that it takes up to two months for the stuff to arrive (but then again I used US postal service option, and twice the items shipped from china)

 

[dequadin]

For the Second 1, the seller wasn't willing to ship to ZA so I used a forwarding company.. Shipito.com

Shipito seems expensive. $50 per year and $2.50 per package and $2 per consolidation.

vs MyUS $ 60 per year then no other charges except shipping.

 

[mh348]

Only issue is that it takes up to two months for the stuff to arrive (but then again I used US postal service option, and twice the items shipped from china)

Using postal service (EMS) usually takes about 3 weeks.. FedEx takes about 7 to 10 days to your door..

It all depends on the service you choose..

 

[mh348]

Shipito seems expensive. $50 per year and $2.50 per package and $2 per consolidation.

vs MyUS $ 60 per year then no other charges except shipping.

I used the Pre-paid option, paid about $8.50 for the package and $? for repackaging (can't remember how much), just to pack it into a smaller box..

 

[xrapidx]

He has received goods knowing that they have been (deliberately) labelled such as to allow him to avoid paying the VAT he ought to be.

It is like taking goods through the 'nothing to declare' section of the airport to avoid paying taxes on them. In both cases, not being caught doesn't somehow make it legal.

Here's an idea - lets send our parcels back to customs when they're labelled incorrectly and see if we get them back the second time with our very corrupt and dishonest postal services.

I have asked just about every seller to attach the paypal invoice to the box so it can breeze through customs - not one has - and I've purchased a considerable amount on ebay... there's no way I'm sending them back to customs if they get it wrong.